Speaking of exams, remember that I once mentioned that the very first time I saw karate in person, I was watching two “white belts” (actually two brown belts from other schools testing for rank in the KAH) taking an exam and being blown away by their “beginner skills”?  The fellow who invited me to watch was my good friend’s older brother; a KAH black belt named Dennis.  Separately, he had gotten Sensei Wayne interested in joining and you all know that, in turn, I persuaded Sensei Peter to join up with me.  Dennis also had interested my old SKC partner Sensei Paul along with a large number of other UH students (mostly from Pearl City and Waipahu) to give it a try.  I guess he was a natural karate recruiter, planting the seed of interest among our friends and many subsequently joined.  Later, Dennis graduated from UH, received his commission into the U.S. Army, and left for his assignment; never returning to regular training.  While his karate experience ended after 4-5 years, Dennis did leave a lasting legacy…us, haha. , Over fifty years later, we four old-time karateka that he talked into joining, are still involved in the art.

Anyways, I recently came across a photo of Dennis (the wonder of the internet!) so I can now add a face to the friend who inspired each of your sensei to commence this life-long activity.  That’s our old sensei Kenneth Funakoshi (in the middle) leading the charge – Dennis is next to him on the left of the photo.  You may not quite recognize the drill they’re doing.  It’s a jiyu (free-style) kumite combination consisting of a mae-geri followed by a deep lunging oezuki.  We reserve these “running drills” for brown and black belt level students.  These dynamic movements are carried out with much greater speed and reach than is possible with the same technique you practice at the basic level…but, as the saying goes, “You must learn to walk before you can run.”

For color belts who’ve never seen the KAH  jiyu kumite “running” combinations, here’s a 44 second video showing our old sensei (he must have been around 60 at the time) outrunning the other younger karateka, haha.